TCB Art Inc. is an artist-run gallery in Melbourne, Australia, dedicated to providing a space where young, emerging and established artists alike have the artistic freedom to explore, experiment and take risks within their practices. The gallery was established in 1988 by artists Blair Trethowan, Sharon Goodwin and Thomas Deverall, who identified a vital need for a non-commercial, non-for-profit space in Melbourne’s CBD, which exposed the work of young and emerging artists to a wide audience. What has developed over twenty-four years of operation is a lo-fi, high-energy project which remains entirely volunteer-run.
So far, TCB has been a platform and support to over seven hundred artists — from Australia, the Asia-Pacific region, and internationally — many of whom presented their first solo exhibitions at the gallery. In 2001 TCB moved from its original home in the Port Phillip Arcade to Waratah Place in Chinatown. This space was shared with Uplands Gallery, a commercial space, an arrangement which saw the development of a unique relationship between the two modes of operation. During this time, TCB further consolidated its position within the community and gained invaluable experience in running the gallery. In 2006, Upland Gallery relocated to Prahran, allowing TCB the opportunity to occupy the entire Waratah Place site. This dramatic increase in floorspace provided much more flexibility for artists in terms of experimenting with scae, as well as creating the means for the gallery to present two exhibition concurrently. In the mid-2010s, the gallery initiated a program of volunteer exhibition sitters. 2018 saw the gallery rent-hike outfrom Melbourne’s CBD and movenorth, finding a new home in Wilkinson Street, Brunswick. After over a year of searching for a suitable, wheelchair-accessible building, TCB was able to secure a site with two exhibition spaces and eight independently operating studios.
Despite several location shifts and a continually evolving collective of commitee members and volunteer sitters, TCB has remained dedicated to providing a platform and support for emerging artists and curators, whilst continuing to run independently. The gallery maintains environmentally sustainable practices throughout its operations and exists in part through the continuing support of its past members and supporters, who it would like to acknowledge and deeply thank. TCB Art Inc. acknowledges the people of the Kulin Nations as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which ths gallery sits and operates, we recognise their enduring connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to their Elders; past, present and emerging. We also acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. TCB is run by a collective of volunteers who are all practicing artists, curators, writers and arts administrators.